Vintage Playbill auction for Open House by NY-based director/designer

New York-based director and set designer Joey Mendoza announced that he is donating his personal vintage Playbill collection to a benefit auction for Open House Fundraiser.

Joey who moved to the US in the 90’s and worked with the Ma-Yi theater in New York revealed that while preparing for the online reunion of “Anna in the Tropics” via PalabasTayo AfterParty, the organizing team asked him if there is anything he can giveaway to help boost the donation drive. He looked in his closet and found his collection of vintage playbills (33 to 40 years old) which he has had in possession for about three years.

The director of Nilo Cruz’ Pulitzer prize-winning play shared that he lives in a building in Midtown, Manhattan where a lot of industry people on Broadway stay. A vocal coach by the name of Janice Cavalier lived next door to him and trained a lot of actors in singing. When she moved out, she left him her entire collection of Playbills including “Applause”, “Amadeus”, “Nine”, and “Into the Woods”. We also learned that Janice Cavalier, the original owner of the Playbills is a soprano and a recording artist who has a two-volume recording of her performance in Alice Tully Hall.

Joey is now semi-retired but still does freelance stage design/graphic design and teaches in Fordham part-time. “Anna in the Tropics” is his debut as a director in Manila. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled before it opened due to the expanded community quarantine caused by the global COVID-19 crisis. However, his stage design output includes “Eto Na! Musikal nAPO!” for 9 Works Theatrical and Globe Live, “A Doll’s House Part 2” for Red Turnip, “Company” for Upstart Productions, “The Quest for the Adarna” and “Anna in the Tropics” both for Repertory Philippines. He is now ready to part with the vintage playbills which can be considered a theater geek’s pot of gold because he says, “I want to help raise money for this cause and someone else will appreciate them more than I”.

Open House Fundraiser aims to raise 1 million pesos to help 500 displaced workers form the performing arts community during the expanded community quarantine.

Here are the mechanics to bid for the vintage playbills:

1. Select from the catalog and state the price you are willing to pay in the comments section below. All bids start at P2,000 each.
2. Bidding will close on April 19 at 12 midnight. (Absolutely no more bids will be accepted after April 19, 11:59:59 pm).
3. The winning bidder will be notified on April 20. The winning bid must be donated within 3 days via bit.ly/DonateOpenHouse or deposited to the Landbank checking account of Artists Welfare Project (1772-1030-73). Note that service fees may apply.
4. Proof of donation must be sent to PalabasTayo@gmail.com for verification and confirmation with Open House Fundraiser teams
5. The selected vintage playbill will be mailed by Joey Mendoza to the winners’ address.
6. All proceeds will go to the Open House Fundraiser.

Below is the episode where Joey talks about the Playbills.

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